The Joy of His Presence

For the joy that lay before him,

 he endured the cross,

 despising the shame,

 and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 CSB

Let's take time today to rest in his presence.  In his presence is fullness of joy. 

Joy comes from relationship with God and others. Because God wanted to have the joy of our company, Jesus endured a painful death.  Now we have a place in his presence. 

Some days we feel far away because of fear or guilt. Yet, he is still the same.  He is still there. Oh, for the return of those days of blessedness when we feel his presence - the warmth, peace and calm assurance.  It makes it so much easier for us to give the gift of loving presence away to others when we are experiencing it ourselves.

Lord, thank you today for the gift of your presence, for the gift of communion and fellowship.  I am so happy that you want to be with me.

Today, even if I have feelings of guilt or fear, may I still acknowledge that you are here.  Set me free so that I may come again into your presence where I can experience full fellowship with you and give it away to others.  Amen.

You will show me the way of life,

granting me the joy of your presence 

and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalms 16:11 NLT

Knowing God

And this is eternal life:

 it means to know

 (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand)

 You, the only true and real God,

 and to know Him, Jesus Christ, 

whom You have sent.

John 17:3 (AMP)

Everywhere I have turned recently I am encountering writings about knowing God.  I came across a little booklet stuck away inside a book on my shelf that talks about friendship with God.  It states that God's purpose for our lives is to have a close personal and intimate relationship with him.  Out of that relationship everything else is derived - our needs our met and we become channels of blessing for those around us in whatever place we find ourselves.

Then this morning on www.aholyexperience.com comes this quote:

For millions of Christians…God is no more real than He is to the non-Christian. They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principle. Over against all this cloudy vagueness stands the clear scriptural doctrine that God can be known in personal experience. 

A loving Personality dominates the Bible, walking among the trees of the garden and breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation. 

The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men can know God with at least the same degree of immediacy as they know any other person or thing that comes within the field of their experience. The same terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are used to express knowledge of physical things.  ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good.’…the whole import of the Scripture is toward this belief. 

What can all this mean except that we have in our hearts organs by means of which we can know God as certainly as we know material things through our five senses?~A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

There is nothing more important in life than to experience this relationship with God.  We have been made in his image.  I am a person because He is a person and He is a person that I can relate to intimately. Let us ask, seek and knock until the door is opened, putting aside all fear and reaching out to a God who is there to meet us. May I be drawn closer to him each day.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

Psalms 34:8 (NLT)

Snare

The Lord is my light and my salvation-- 

whom shall I fear? 

The Lord is the stronghold of my life--

 of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalms 27:1 (NIV)

Another source of fear in our lives comes in our relationships.  We may feel intimidated by others or afraid to confront.  We may become passive, not standing up for ourselves or what we believe in.

God is a God of justice.  It is his desire that each person be treated fairly and with respect.  He works in us to correct any situation that is not according to this standard. If someone treats us disrespectfully or with injustice, God is our advocate.  If we treat someone else unfairly, God will correct us. 

Understanding our position in Christ keeps us from falling into the trap of fearing others or giving them too much power over us.  God wants us to be submissive one to another, but it is a voluntary submission not something forced by fear, manipulation or threat. 

Putting hope and trust in other human beings can leave us disappointed.  Humans always fall short.  Perhaps you have been caught in the snare of putting too much trust in someone only to find that they have let you down. 

What others say and do doesn't really matter.  Well, of course, it does matter very much because we are so dependent on each other.  The difference is that if we have made God our refuge and strength what other people do will not have a devastating effect upon us.  If the unchangeable God is our source then from him we will gain the strength to do the right thing even when the words and actions of others disappoint or hurt us.  We may need to wisely confront, or to overlook but always with the strength of God's love dictating our responses and actions.

This is freedom from fear.  We know that no matter what others do we will be safe and secure in God's care and he will give us the wisdom to respond to each situation with love and peace.  This is the freedom of God's spirit.  Lord, grant us more of your spirit for each moment and each day.

 Fearing people is a dangerous trap,

 but trusting the Lord means safety. 

 Prov 29:25 (NLT)

The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear.

 What can mere people do to me?  

 Psalms 118:6 (NLT)

Fresh Start

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! 

His mercies never cease. 

Great is his faithfulness; 

his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Lam 3:22-23 (NLT)

His mercies are new every morning. All the mistakes and failures of yesterday are gone, blotted out by the light of the rising sun.  I might tend to hold onto my guilt from the previous days behavior (especially when the same pattern of misbehavior seems to crop up every day), but God doesn't remember.  The generosity of God's love is amazing!  God gives me a fresh start every day - a fresh start with nothing hanging over my head.  This gives me the freedom to go forward in hope.

Then, I remember the verse that says we should not let the sun go down on our anger.  As an imitator of God, I cannot hold onto the grudges and hurts of the previous day.  It's hard when I'm faced with the same offending and irritating behavior every day, but it is my responsibility to release those hurts to God before the sun goes down.  If I don't, it will color my response tomorrow, making me stingy and grudging in my attitude towards others.  If, before the sun goes down, I release and forgive whatever has happened that day, I will be free to love again when the sun comes up allowing the mercy and grace of God's generous love to be exhibited through me as I offer to others that fresh start that God has offered to me. 

How can we release each day, before the sun sets, every negative, hurtful, offending or irritating thing that may have happened to us that day?  I find this hard to do. Do you have any practical or helpful suggestions about how we can accomplish this?

I would love to hear your comments.

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” 

Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,

for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Eph 4:26-27 (NLT)

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful,

and endures through every circumstance.

1 Cor 13:7 (NLT)

Then Peter came to him and asked, 

“Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?

Seven times?” 
“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

Matt 18:21-22 (NLT)

Enemies

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.

Ask God to help them;
intercede on their behalf,
and give thanks for them.

1 Tim 2:1 (NLT)

We are urged to pray for everyone.  The "all people" of this verse includes not only family, friends and neighbors, but bosses, political figures and superstars.  And, it includes, most especially, those we may have something against. 

Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies - those who have hurt us in some way.  This is a most remarkable request, one that goes against all of our natural inclinations. It doesn't seem reasonable that we should pray for God to help our enemies, that we should intercede for them or give thanks for them. 

The scripture goes even further suggesting that we not only pray for our enemies, but bless them.  It asks that we do good, lend to them, feed them and give them a drink of water if they are thirsty.  It asks us to replace our desire to retaliate with trust that God will bring his justice in the end. We are asked to replace the urge to talk back with the patient endurance that allows us to hold our tongue, to bless when we are cursed, to appeal gently when we are wronged, returning only good for evil. 

This is the description of an unbelievable and unique new life in God. All of these things are diametrically opposed to what we might naturally feel like doing.  These are hard things to do, but, these are the qualities that God is desiring to build in us.  These are the things that make us like our Father who is kind and does good, supplying the needs of evil and good people alike in the hope that all will respond to his call of love.

Who could you ask God to help today? - A friend, an enemy, a family member, your boss, a politician, a government official, a superstar? 

But to you who are willing to listen, I say, 

love your enemies

Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you. 

Pray for those who hurt you. 

Luke 6:27,28 (NLT)

Harmony

Pelicans over Crystal Cove, Newport Coast, CA

 

So let us then definitely aim for and eagerly pursue 

what makes for harmony and for mutual upbuilding,

edification and development of one another.  

Romans 14:19 (AMP)

May God who gives this patience and encouragement,

help you live in complete harmony with each other –

each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other.

Romans 15:5 (NLT)

One of the many things I enjoy about the beach is watching the Pelicans soaring over the water.  Yesterday, a large group hovered over my head for sometime seemingly having a conference to decide who was going to be the leader this time. Then they took off, one out ahead and the others falling into a V behind. 

Watching these creatures of the sky working together in harmony reminds me of the kind of life God has in mind for us. Harmony is created only by each one of us having the attitude of Christ who did not seek to please himself, but bore all of our weaknesses and failings. We, also, are called upon to accept each other with patient endurance.

We are only human and often fall into doubts and fears.  The scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for the fulfillment of his perfect ways, but right now we are faced with an imperfect world and we are imperfect people who need the support and encouragement of others as we deal with all of our shortcomings, faults, weaknesses, doubts and fears.  

Since our natural inclination is to correct or to judge and our patience often runs thin, we must call on him for we cannot manufacture the attitude of Christ in our own strength.  Realizing that only God has enough wisdom and understanding to judge, our job is only to accept and encourage.  It comes only from his life within us.

So accept each other as Christ has accepted you.  Romans15:7 (NLT)

Let each one of us make it a practice to please his neighbor

for his good and for his true welfare,

to edify him, to strengthen him and build him up spiritually.

Romans 15:2 (AMP)

Friends & Family

So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. 

That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.

Heb 2:11 (NLT)

It's amazing to think about the close personal relationship God desires to have with us.  He is not a distant relative, but a close personal family member and friend.  

I no longer call you slaves,

because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves.

Now you are my friends, 

since I have told you everything the Father told me.

John 15:15 (NLT)

It gave Jesus great joy to communicate with his disciples as friends telling them everything he had heard from the father.  And now he desires that same relationship with us, a relationship of open communication. It is not just a one way conversation, but a sharing of our lives as we would with a close friend or  family member.

We need not be afraid of drawing close and sharing our lives with him. It gives him great joy.

And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

1 John 1:3-4 (NLT)

Compassion

We can be harsh critics at times.  When we are offended by the behavior of others we may tend to judge or label them or want to withdraw ourselves from them.  Our Father, on the other hand, is a person of understanding and compassion (com=with, passion=suffering).  He moves toward us in our weakness.  Why is that?  Because he remembers how we were made. 

We are described as being made of dust.  When you add water to dust you get clay.  Clay is a moldable substance.  When we were young we were shaped by our experiences some positive, some negative.  God remembers how we were formed.  He knows where we came from.  He remembers every moment of our lives.  He sees the imperfections of our parents as they raised us.  He sees the hurts and disappointments we faced.  He sees the frailness and weakness of our body type that predisposes us to sickness or weakness.  He understands how we were formed and so he has great compassion on us. He doesn’t condemn us but with deep sympathy, as a good Father, moves towards us and provides all that we need.

 As a father has compassion on his children, 

so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;  

for he knows how we are formed,

he remembers that we are dust. 

Psalms 103:13-14 (NIV)

Delight

Yesterday, I saw a father on the golf course with his young son.  Dad was the “caddy” tending the kid size golf bag with the kid size golf clubs.  The father was there patiently watching and encouraging, delighting in his son as the boy tried out his budding golf skills. 

God, as our Father delights in us. He enjoys watching us play, have fun and learn new skills.  He is not an austere, strained and strict father, but an extravagant one who gives us so much to enjoy.  As we take time to gratefully enjoy his gifts, God is pleased.  Our Dad joins with us and delights in us as we play, learn and grow.   

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing."

Zeph 3:17 (NIV)

My Father and Your Father

When Jesus came he demonstrated a new way of relating to God.  He came calling God his Father and our Father.  He allowed us a glimpse into that close intimate relationship between Father and Son.  He opened the door for us to experience that same intimate relationship.


Jesus came to reveal the Father and he is full of joy when he sees his children experiencing that close relationship that he had with the Father.  As we come to understand more of the loving nature of our Father we will be drawn ever closer to him.

Turn our hearts, Lord, to know more of you so that we will be drawn into a closer and closer intimate relationship. 

Jesus said, Go to my brothers and tell them,

'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

John 20:17 (NIV)

I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

John 17:26 (NLT)